


A Little Less Dandy, A Little More Take This Spike To My Heart

by pastelgothclaudia



Category: A Little Less Sixteen Candles a Little More "Touch Me" - Fall Out Boy (Song), Bandom, Fall Out Boy, The Academy Is..., Waterparks (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - A Little Less Sixteen Candles (Music Video), Multi, Polyamory, Supernatural Elements, Vampires, Werewolves, vampire gangs
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-09
Updated: 2018-10-09
Packaged: 2019-04-20 12:32:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 10,943
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14261043
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pastelgothclaudia/pseuds/pastelgothclaudia
Summary: Awsten is a relatively new werewolf living with the ones who turned him. Unfortunately for him, they get put into business with the Sixteen Candles Hunting Agency and Awsten is thrown headfirst into facing vampire gangs, faulty clones, possibly fake churches, and his own goddamn self.





	A Little Less Dandy, A Little More Take This Spike To My Heart

**Author's Note:**

  * For [caimani](https://archiveofourown.org/users/caimani/gifts).



> yea so i finally finished it but it's still unbetaed and i still ain't know what the fuck going on so here, take it, ask to beta if you so please.
> 
> creds to [caimani](https://archiveofourown.org/users/caimani) for telling me "werewolf polyparx!" all those months ago and then i made this

“The Sixteen Candles guys are getting close.” Geoff tells Otto and Awsten. The faint clacking of shoes on concrete comes into range of Awsten’s hearing on cue and he turns to see for himself. Four shadowy figures are trying to creep their way into the city and from the looks of it, he can see they’re armed too, except for one.

Awsten sniffs the area and besides the scent of smoke and garbage, there’s also the distinct fleshy human scent and scent of something else wafting with it.

“That’s them. Only Pete would have that weird dusty musk vamps have _and_ a garlic blood scent,” Awsten notes.  

The three of them are at a shady alley in a hidden corner the city, the black sky and their heightened abilities keeping them away from any of the vampire gangs itching for a kill at this time. It’s nine o’clock now; a period where some Dandies, the most notorious of the gangs, begin to lurk for their first kill of the night and the time the trio is supposed to meet up with the notorious vampire resistance group, the Sixteen Candles Hunters’ Agency.

“What if this is just a setup?” Otto spurts. “You know what happened to the Betas. We don’t need that happening to us.”

Awsten bites his lip, knowing he made a good point. Some Betas were found dead from Sixteen Candles weapons in attacks earlier in the month, or at least that’s what most of the pack is saying. They’ve done minor business with them before with weapon trades so he knows what danger they’re dealing with, but he can’t shake off the rawness in Patrick’s voice in the brief, yet urgent message the agency had sent to them earlier. Somehow it overshadows the fear.  

“They think the Betas were under some sort of hypnosis from Dandies, but there was also something else they couldn’t explain.” Geoff explains, eyes cast downwards. “The Clandestine labs found an extreme chemical imbalance in the Betas they tried to save, but nothing worked and they had to do what was best for everyone.”

Otto looks down glumly, and Awsten can hear him take in a breath as the flesh and blood and garlic scents grow stronger.

Four pairs of shoes shuffle towards the alley entryway, blocking off the small exit completely. Awsten can even hear the quiet click of some of their weapons being cocked.

“Petey,” Awsten begins, rolling on an overconfident smirk. “Nice to see y’all brought presents.”

“Can it.” Andy huffs, aiming his gun or whatever he has at Awsten. Christ, they could at least give him a chance to actually speak.

Pete raises a hand in front of Andy, ceasing him from shooting and forcing him to put down his weapon. “Just a precaution, _Awssie_.” It’s Pete’s turn to grin now as Awsten scowls, cringing at that god awful nickname.

Pete’s smile dissolves as Patrick gives him a light shove on his shoulder and a raised eyebrow to remind him why they’re meeting.

“We got some news to break to you and we figure we could use your help.” Patrick says, attempting to meet somewhat eye to eye with them in the dark. “We think there’s this new gang and they came up on our radar after a Dandy attack downtown. They left some of these in their tracks.”

Patrick drops his weapon to pull a neon pink flyer out of his jacket pocket. He holds his arm out, inviting Awsten, Geoff, or Otto to take it. It reeks of alcohol and metal and ends up in the hands of Geoff, Otto and Awsten surrounding his sides to read it for themselves. _The Church of Hot Addiction_ , the title reads. There’s a picture of a hissing cobra stamped in black and _Hosted at_ _Cobra Headquarters_ and _Accepting new parishioners Friday the 13th at 6:00 P.M. under invitation_ is printed on top of the design.

“And what does this have to do with us?” Geoff asks, looking up from the flyer.

“Well, we don’t know how old this thing is, but this Friday the Thirteenth is a full moon and well—hold that up to the moon and you’ll see.” Patrick explains.

With a a skeptic brow raised, Geoff lifts up the paper to the sky. Once the moonlight casts a light down to it, something _does_ happen. The fierce cobra fades off the paper and instead, an image of a howling wolf drawn in a glowing white light replaces the empty space.

“Holy shit.” Awsten looks in awe of the change.

“Yeah, pretty much.” Joe agrees with a nod.

“Anyways, we’re thinking this is some werewolf related shit based off that, but we don’t know what exactly. This city doesn’t need another shitty ass gang harming the humans and _definitely_ doesn’t need a new religion.” Pete scowls as he grits out the words, probably thinking of all the poor, miserable humans stuck here. “We don’t know whose side they’re on, but if it’s another gang, it’s probably not ours. We need your help to infiltrate them and find out what the fuck is going down there. It might be dangerous, though. Rumor has it, they've developed some pretty harmful anti-werewolf weapons.”

Otto hums in mock thought and rests his chin between his thumb and index finger. “Let’s see, risk our lives helping Pete Wentz and his friends who kill wolves like us or deny the offer.”

He can hear Pete start to hiss a little at the statement. Typical vampire, Awsten thinks.

“You do know this involves all of you, right?” Andy has his arms crossed tightly over his chest now.

“We know,” Geoff places a firm, yet tender hand on Otto, who sighs and leans in. “but what’s in it for us?”

“Not dealing with another gang and not getting your pack fucked over by them.” Joe says in a “duh” voice. “There’s also some experimental tech we can loan you to help you with that uh, experiment thing we heard you got.”

Awsten’s eyes widen at the words; Geoff and Otto freezing for a moment hearing it too. The only people who were supposed to know about that were Geoff, Otto, Travis, and whoever was working with Jawn in the lab.

“We’ll do it,” Geoff announces to everyone without consulting Awsten and Otto. The Sixteen Candles guys look content and a little surprised from the response, Awsten and Otto reacting the opposite of that.

God, they’re so fucked.

 

-

 

“Nice job, Geoff.” Awsten drones as the trio walks into the lab. After their meeting with the Sixteen Candles Agency, they all decided (“Because we should probably make stupid decisions _together_.” Otto directed to Geoff.) they should consult the lab guys for some help. Personally, Awsten lowkey hates coming here because the all white interior kind of freaks him out even if he knows the humans here are cool. “We have to become a part of a shady church on Friday the Thirteenth, which is tomorrow, with no clue what it is and it’s right before a full moon. Oh, not to mention, the Sixteen Candles guys know about our top secret weapon.”

“Pete’s been talking about developing clones for a while; Travis rants about having him at the Clandestine and resistances summits. Jawn just _had_ to make clones first, I guess. We know it has to do with us somehow at least. Besides, you need some extra support with that clone of yours. We can’t fight off hundreds of vamp gangs if it doesn’t work.” Geoff argues, walking backwards in front of Awsten. He supposes all that could be true, but he still had doubts about the lab.

The Clandestine Industries labs was the place smart (and willing) enough humans were able to develop weapons and tech to fight against vampire gangs. Supposedly, it’s funded by reward money from the mayor for turning in gang leaders, but Awsten thinks that’s it’s blood money. But shady dealings or not, they make some pretty useful shit for them.

“His name’s Felony Steve apparently.” Awsten notes. He regrets his agreement with Clandestine to act as their lab rat for weapons. As good as their weapons come, there’s still chance for mistakes and Felony Steve is proof of that. He’s supposed to have enhanced werewolf traits, but also create illusion clones like vampires. On the contrary, all he actually does is say bullshit and attack anything that comes near him, but Awsten thinks it could be worse. “And it’s _fine_ , really. He’s under control because of Jawn and Travis.”

Otto’s eyes narrow into slits. “I thought he punched Jawn and clawed Travis after they tried turning him into a wolf on command.”

“Exactly, he’s doing a lot better considering he’s on all those lab drugs. So fuck you, Geoff. You still suck for getting us into this.”

Geoff rolls his eyes and walks in between Awsten and Otto to interlock all of their fingers and swing their arms back and forth. “Whatever, you guys still love me.” He even presses a quick peck to Awsten’s temple and Otto’s cheek for emphasis.

Maybe a little more than both of you think, Awsten thinks hearing him, pointedly ignoring the stupid bubbly feeling floating up inside him.

“Doesn’t mean we still hate you.” Awsten replies instead, dropping Geoff’s hand from his grip. That sounds about right. “Oh, we’re here.”

They stand in front of a large doorway sliding open with a muted hiss. Inside, Travis waves to them while Jawn tries to have a conversation with Felony Steve, who’s enraptured in a box shaped forcefield.

“Can you _please_ stop mumbling in third person?” Jawn asks, clearly frustrated with him.

“Fel’ny Steve don’ care a fuuuuuuck.” Felony Steve smugly slurs.

Jawn turns to Travis and whispers. “Next time, we should focus on IQ points instead of strength.”

“Got it, but you should probably focus on who came in right now.” Travis replies, gesturing towards the trio.

“How could I forget.” Jawn sighs, walking towards them. “What’s wrong this time?”

“Geoff’s a fuckin’ dumbass,” Awsten announces to them. “He got us into some Sixteen Candles mystery shit with this flyer for some underground church because they say if we find info, we’ll get some help with Felony right there.”

“Hate to break it to you, but Geoff’s not that much of a dumbass. We may be the ones with the clone, but they have the wits, effective weapons, and knowledge to help us.” As Jawn speaks, Felony Steve flips him off, much to the entertainment of everyone else. “But the flyer, what do you mean by mystery shit?”

Geoff frees his hand from Otto’s and takes the paper from his pocket.

“The snake turns into a wolf once it’s in moonlight,” Otto adds.

Then it’s handed to Travis and Jawn, who start eagerly analyzing it.

“Interesting.” Travis notes. “Any notable scent to it?”

“Alcohol and metal. But now that I think of it,” Awsten inhales the air, focusing on the paper and not the plastic scent of the room. “the metal part of it could be blood.”

Jawn takes the paper with both hands and holds it close to his face. “Right. We can analyze this for any clues, but it’s probably gonna take a little while. And for the other parts of this, you’re gonna have to find that out for yourselves.”

“Thanks in advance.” Awsten says before turning to Geoff and Otto. “Who’s ready to make conspiracy theories?”

 

-

 

Awsten wakes up in a cold sweat accompanied by deep, heavy breaths.

Ugh. Nightmares.

It was the one with fire again; him, Geoff, and Otto would be sitting around in some house and everything would be on fire, including their hair. He could live with the fire, but it’s the fact they went into their wolf forms and clawed him makes it a nightmare. Considering it’s a recurring one, he’s kind of surprised he’s still shocked by it.

He looks out his window and the sky is the same black as before. Must be early in the morning.

With all the subtlety he can muster up, Awsten tries to slide out of bed without making too much noise. He accomplishes it (after maybe a five minutes) and creeps outside his bedroom to see a door opened to Geoff and Otto’s room.

He scans the inside to see if Geoff and Otto show any signs of being awake, but they’re both sound asleep and comfortably sprawled out on each other in their streets. It used to be all of theirs, his mind reminds him. There’s a stupid longing in him aching to reach out, pretend they’re all in love and just.

Just.

He grips the doorframe and his feet start creeping in. He’s hyperaware of his heartbeat as it races with his thoughts. Just assure him that all his stupid lonely feelings don’t have any reason. Just assure him he’s not an outsider to their pack. Just fucking—

A soft hum comes from one of them and Geoff smiles in his sleep as he rolls close to Otto, who smirks unknowingly.

Awsten frowns, biting his lip looking at the scene. Stupid. What is he even doing? How would even explain himself to them? He’s just tired, that’s all. With a sigh, he slunks towards the living room, definitely not eyeing the door handle. He needs to stop thinking too much about them and needs to start thinking more about their mission.

Right.

He creeps to the living room to face the monstrosity of evidence there. They started a makeshift conspiracy board last night after handing the flyer to Jawn and Travis. Awsten walks up to the mess of sloppy notes connected by red string tacked directly on their wall.

So far, they’ve only come to two conclusions: Cobra Headquarters isn’t a real place and the only way wolves and snakes would relate to each other would be because of the wolf snake (which is just a snake with canines). Awsten lifts one of the papers tacked up to try and see if they missed out on something important.

“Hey,” A voice startles Awsten from behind.

He swerves around to look at whoever’s with him. Instinctively, he growls a little as he scans the room.

“Don’t go all feral, it’s just me.” The source of the voice puts their hands up and walks towards Awsten. In their path to him, the faint bits of moonlight left shines on them through a window in the corner of the room.

“Mikey?” Awsten hushes in surprise. This was weird. Besides the raised question of “Why the fuck did you sneak into my house?” there’s also the other question of “How did you sneak into my house if you’re a vamp and I didn’t invite you?”.

“Yeah, I know it’s weird, but I waltzed into Dandy territory getting shit for Gerard and I got ambushed because apparently, having a priest for a brother isn’t so popular. I knew your pack lived nearby so I thought I’d just take a chance and see if you have any anti vampire shit Gerard can mix for Pete’s weakening cocktail.” Mikey walks to the side of Awsten to see the wall in all its glory. “Nice decorations.”

“You managed to get in here and I didn’t welcome you.” Awsten points out, still confused. God, it was too early for this shit. “Not to mention you’re literally assuming we have whatever ingredients Gerard needs here when he could just do it himself.”

Mikey leans closer to the clippings tacked up, analyzing them in depth. “You guys invited me in here once, and that means I’m allowed to to come here for life, er unlife. Also, Pete’s been getting these weird killer impulses and Gerard’s trying to control so he needs a bigger dose of shit. I just need some garlic for now.”

Weird killer impulses, Awsten repeats in his mind as he searches their cabinets. He considers writing it down and pricking it up on its own because the Sixteen Candles guys have to do with this somehow, right? He manages to find a pound of minced garlic bottled up in the corner of one of the cabinets and hands it to Mikey, who mutters a small thanks.

Mikey turns to leave, but he stops, eyes glued to the conspiracy board. “By the way, what’s with this?”

It feels like the thousandth time he’s had to explain it since the Sixteen Candles guys approached, but he tells Mikey regardless.

Mikey hums and looks at the board closely, running a finger of the location part of the board. “You figure anything out yet?”

“Only the fact that this place doesn’t exist and wolves don’t have to do with snakes.” Awsten replies, raising an eyebrow as Mikey halts the finger over one of the papers.

“I think I might know some missing pieces.” Mikey announces in his weirdly expressive monotone.

Oh.

What?

“Don’t get too confused, I can hear your thoughts, y’know. But yeah, I might know where this is.” Mikey views the rest of the wall, finger still set in its place. “Maybe like, a little before I was turned, I knew this guy, Gabe, and we’d meet up at this shitty club. It didn’t actually have a name, but we’d call it ‘Something Headquarters’ and the something part would be an inside joke of the day.”

Awsten furrows his brows. “But that doesn’t really—”

“I know, but the thing is, one time we were there, this guy brought in a snake. Don’t ask me why. So our dumb, drunk asses go up to it and it fuckin’ bites Gabe right in the neck. And then he had all these weird hallucinations ‘n shit he kept rambling about some ‘spiritual experience’ he had, but I haven’t seen him around since.” He turns to Awsten. “If I’m right, I just found the guy in charge of your mystery church.”

Awsten drops his jaw because he’s hearing Mikey, who basically broke into his house, solving their problem. “How the fuck.”

Mikey shrugs. “Knowing things about people just helps sometimes. But, uh, you might wanna tell your, uh,” He rolls his wrist trying to explain. “Geoff and Otto.”

“My Geoff and Otto.” Awsten repeats, only then realizing what he meant, eyes wide. “We’re not like _that_. They’re dating and I’m just kinda, uh, here.”

It sounded kind of sad, but it was true. He  _was_ just there. The former human they just so happened to turn and take in. The memory’s sharp enough he can still pinpoint where the blood from the fresh bite trailed down his chest. Everything was amped up to one hundred. He could hear every bit of a conversation in a room, smell everything stuffed in the air, feel every single detail with a stroke of his finger. He hated it.

They took pity on him, smothered him with affection. When he got used to everything, he slept in a bed with them and got to feel a mess of limbs and soft breaths against his skin each night and woke up laughing in a sleepy daze. That dissipated as time went on; they redirected that love to themselves and he knew it was time to give them space. Maybe, Awsten thinks, maybe that’s around the time he realized why his brain was hardwired to mope just a little bit whenever they were happy without him.

Mikey judges him with a fixed gaze and Awsten has to mentally facepalm himself. He’s gotta start remembering vampire telepathy and stop thinking for once.

“I’ll look around for Gabe and the club.” Mikey announces, turning to leave out the door for once. He targets his eyes towards Awsten’s with a foot out the door. “You should talk to them, by the way. It’ll be good for all of you.”

The door shuts a little loudly in the quiet. Awsten is left alone once more with dead silence. He kicks the wall hard enough a dull thud rings out of the silence and slumps back to his bed.

 

-

 

“Okay,” Geoff looks over the list of things they need for the infiltration. “what if we just went over this one more—”

“But do we _really_?” Awsten argues from the backseat. He turns his head to Otto nodding at the driver’s seat in agreement with him.

“Of course we do. We can’t fuck this up or else crazy parishioners _and_ the Sixteen Candles guys’ll be on our asses. Just, y’know, list everything we need in place again.” Geoff instructs from the front.

Awsten groans but lists everything anyways. “We got the Sixteen Candles guys, Jawn, and Travis on standby on the wires, the pack ‘n Felony’s also on standby to attack if things go to complete shit, we got the address and who the guy in charge is, and the getaway car here so we can leave before we transform at 9 o’ whatever. We’re good.”

Geoff opens his mouth to say something, but Otto brakes hard on the curb.

“Whoops.” Otto says, looking a little sheepishly at Geoff. “Anyways, we’re here at least.”

As Awsten’s about to get out, Jawn’s voice fizzles in through their wires. “You guys already on your way?”

“We’re already here, _mom_ . Did _you_ finish finding out what’s in that flyer?” Awsten replies, sounding a little bitchier than he needed to. Pre-transformation fever was the worst on him, but he’s trying to control it like Geoff and Otto.

“You’re werewolf PMSing already, wow.” Jawn can’t see it, but Awsten rolls his eyes at him. “And almost. I mean, we did find human blood and alcohol in the paper, but we also found traces of shedded snake skin. It should be finished by later, but right now, Felony’s being a bitch and we’re trying to hold him down.”

On cue, the sound of something clattering and a growl is heard in the background. There’s also the unmistakable voice of Travis yelling for help shortly after.

“It sounds like it.” Geoff comments, sounding mildly concerned. “Don’t worry about us right now, you should probably handle that first.”

Jawn agrees with that before Travis can be heard shouting, “Where’s the ray gun?” frantically and the connection cuts off.

“Might wanna uncheck the Travis, Jawn, and Felony part of the plan.” Otto says as steps out of his door.

“Eh, I’d give them like, an hour, tops to solve that.” Awsten opens his door to walk up to Geoff’s window. “Let’s just fucking go, okay?”

“No need to be pissy about it.” Geoff gets out of the car and walks towards where Cobra Headquarters supposedly is according to Mikey, the entrance being a graffitied door in an alleyway to the left of a 7-Eleven on Fremont Street.

Awsten glares at him. “I’m not.”

Geoff puts an arm around Awsten’s shoulder as he walks, catching him off guard for a moment. Otto copies Geoff on his other shoulder. “Sure. I know it’s shitty now ‘cuz you’re new to this and all, but it’ll come through. You just gotta trust the process and yourself.”

He doesn’t know if it’s the pre-transformation fever or them or both, but a heat flares to his cheeks. He feels so stupid and they’re not even doing anything remotely romantic.

Awsten escapes out of their hold, the ghosts of the touches lingering, to greet the alley backdoor. A cobra sits subtly within other graffiti strokes. No bouncer though, oddly enough.

“Sure.” Awsten replies coldly without looking back. There’s a distant thudding sounding out from somewhere and he can’t tell if it’s from himself or not. Carefully, he opens the creaky door to be greeted by the church itself.

As expected, The Church of Hot Addiction is a fucking club.

Something involving an overuse of autotune and a drum beat shaking the floor is blaring through speakers as Awsten creeps in. It’s dark, but the neon lights and black lights put the bar and a stripper pole into view. It’s a small room, but there’s tons of people squashed in, but he’s not sure what species anyone is since the scent of grime and metal overpowers anyone else’s scent. As some of the people move, Awsten can even capture a glimpse of a hallway in the back.

“Welcome to the Church of Hot Addiction, baby!” a voice blares from the speakers.

They’ve got a lot of ground to cover.

 

-

 

Mikey’s information helped them a lot, especially some of the stuff he messaged them later, but even then he couldn’t figure out what was going down. But however the night goes, the plan is this: split up, get info, find the guy in charge, attack if the guy turns out to be using the Church for evil and/or gangs, and drive off before they transform. And that’s exactly what they’re doing now.

Geoff drifts towards the overcrowded hotspot (which in hindsight is probably a dancefloor), Otto has gone in the area around the vacant stripper pole, and leaves Awsten with the bar.

Squeezing his way through the crowd, Awsten manages to find an empty neon pink stool resting in front of the bar.

“Hey!” the bartender shouts at Awsten to be heard. “You want anything?”

“Uh, yeah, I’ll take a water or like, orange juice.” Awsten shouts to back even louder.

The bartender raises a finger and goes into the door of kitchen. His dismissal leaves Awsten to scan the room in depth. Then he realizes he missed seeing a pretty obvious aspect of the room: it’s scattered with differently designed crosses strung across the walls and most of them seem to light up with the other neon.

Awsten taps his earpiece to connect to the wires. “I think I can kinda see why this is a church now.”

“Well duh,” Geoff’s voice is almost drowned out by the noise, but his point is made clear. “I can see that too, but something seems a little off about this place besides the crosses.”

“What d’you mean?” From what he’s been seeing so far, the entire place seems like a normal, yet shady club.

“I dunno, it’s just that I’ve seen a bunch of people get weirdly tired? I know people pass out drunk sometimes, but I’ve seen maybe seven people faint so far. I don’t really feel good about this place, _especially_ ‘cuz I smell a lotta humans here.”

“Maybe they’re just getting heat flashes or something? It might be the fever, but it’s still fucking hot.” Awsten scans the room to see anyone going down like Geoff said, but he finds nothing like that. “I dunno. Otto, did you see anything?”

The connection on Otto’s part stays relatively silent until he checks in with a “Nothin’ much.”

A dull throbbing in the back of his head beats in sync with the blaring drums. Nethertheless, Awsten still felt obligated to respond somehow. “Yeah, see? You’re such a fucking headcase sometimes, God. It’s fine. It’s fucking _fine_.” He’s not sure if he sounds harsher than he needed to, but whatever.

The line goes quiet again, but feels a little longer this time. “Maybe so.” Geoff responds, but it’s piercing, judging like a dull blade to his throat.

Maybe Geoff wasn’t controlling pre-transformation fever as well as he thought.

He’s about to say something back about how he can’t take a fucking joke, but the bartender comes back at the moment and Awsten has to turn off his wire.

“Here you go.” the bartender slides the shot of orange juice towards Awsten. “Sorry ‘bout the wait, we usually keep the more human drinks in the back.”

“Thanks…” Awsten trails off because he doesn’t actually know the bartender’s name. He takes a sip of his glass and feels tiny fractions of the pounding in his head fade.

“Name’s Brendon. So man, what brought you here?”

“Just some uh,” He takes a gulp of the surprisingly good juice. “curiosity. Found one of the flyers here and I thought I’d check it out.”

“Man, those must be the reason half the people here came. I mean, I’ve only known Gabe for a little, but he IMed me some crazy shit about some club idea.”

So there were other ways of promoting the place and it came from the boss himself. From what Mikey had said, he sounded like a dumbass so whatever he’s doing is impressive, especially if this many people could be able to find the location.

“What’s so special about the place then? Like, besides the ad hype, what’s really going down here?”

“That’s a good question.” Brendon takes a moment to think about it, sliding and mixing drinks to others as he does so. “I think it’s more of the fact a bunch of different supernaturals aren’t fighting when they’re smushed together in one space. Like, I’m human, and I’ve served so many supernaturals here. But, if you’re really interested in this place...”

“If I’m really interested then what?” Awsten asks, looking him in the eye.

Brendon leans over the bar, getting closer to Awsten and lowering his voice slightly. “There’s this underground thing or whatever goes down in some other room here. I’ve only heard about it through eavesdropping some convos, so just a disclaimer if it’s fake. The people who get to do it are random and I think it’s this weird VIP thing the boss pulls, but who knows. But if it's real, it probably has to do with drugs. Gabe's around drugs a lot.”

“Wow, that’s,” Awsten tries to think of the words to say. Interesting? A little unbelievable? Possibly the answer to this entire mystery? “wow.”

“I know, right? Maybe that’ll happen to you tonight, y’never know.” Brendon smiles before someone noticeably angry beckons him at the other end of the bar. “It was nice to meet you, but apparently I have to work at my job.”

Awsten waves him goodbye and connects back to the channel. “Hey, I found out shit.”

No one picks up his signal. Well, great.

Awsten opens his mouth to ask if anyone’s there, but a strong hand clenching his shoulder stops him.

“Just follow me and don’t try fighting, got it?” the man attached to the hand grits out.

“Uh yeah, call you back later guys.” Awsten disconnects from the channel to follow him into his certain doom.

 

-

 

“Any chance you’re gonna tell me where I’m going?” Awsten asks once again and isn’t answered by the guy again. Instead he grumbles something along the lines of “kill me now” as they turn another grimy corner of the perpetual hallway.

While the guy’s slightly distracted, Awsten tries to subtly call Geoff and Otto. It doesn’t work though; all he gets is static noise and another minor addition to his headache. They stop abruptly in front of a less shabby looking door compared to the others he’s seen after he turns off his earpiece.

“Oh, would you look at that, we’re here.” the guy says, extremely relieved. He swishes open the rusty door in front of them energetically, shoves Awsten in, and slams it shut.

“Thanks Butcher, you the man!” someone inside the room says cheerily. Awsten eyes him and he’s standing extremely tall, head almost hitting the ceiling with a shit eating grin on his face. But the other thing striking the most about him is the dotted bite marks on his neck peeking out of his suit.

It hits Awsten pretty quick.

“Your name doesn’t happen to be Gabe, right?”

He looks a little surprised for a second, but he goes back to looking smug. “Yep, that’s me. Never met you before though, but it‘s cool.”

Fuck. “I heard about this. You gonna show me what’s goin on?”

“Okay, damn chill, dude, you just came a lil earlier than I thought, but it’s cool. You’ll just have to wait it out, man.” Gabe saunters over to the strikingly clean desk in the midst of the moldy room.

“Right.” Awsten stares around the room. “So what’s this gonna be like?”

“Well,” Gabe begins, jumping backwards into a leather chair. “This _is_ supposed to be a surprise kinda thing for guests here, but you’ll find out soon. Don’t stress or anything, Bilvy’s a real pro and the whole thing just leaves you tingly.”

“Bilvy?” Awsten repeats as Gabe motions him to sit in a chair in front of the desk.

“Well yeah, he’s this bud of mine, we go waaaay back. He’s part of some fancy ass spa thing or something and I may or may not’ve convinced him to pull some of his shit here because his shit’s like, top rated and keeps everyone coming back here. Bilvy’s a busy bastard and it’s expensive hence the whole exclusive thing.”

Then Gabe goes off on a tangent about Bilvy and since he doesn’t sound like he’s going to stop talking anytime soon, Awsten decides to ignore Gabe in favor of looking around the room. It’s more rundown than the entrance of the place and the contrast of the clean furniture showcases it. There’s more crosses covering most of the wall area since a giant, erie portrait of Jesus bleeding out from a crown of thorns is hung up. Jesus’s big, gloomy eyes feel like they’re judging his moral compass. Awsten decidedly looks elsewhere.

Scanning the room, his vision catches sight of a clock reading 8:32. Fuck. He almost forgot about transforming. The faint churn, the itch in his guts was growing in him; a sign he should probably get some information quickly before he goes feral. It probably won’t be too hard though considering Gabe doesn’t know how to shut the fuck up.

“I see you like the whole church theme here.” Awsten talks over Gabe, who shuts up once he’s heard.

Gabe looks back up at him with an almost childlike grin. “I know, right? Catholics are like, fuckin’ insane, but the aesthetic’s totally off the walls. I mean, I’m Jewish, but I had this vision from this snake about these angels ‘n synthpop and crosses and I kinda just put that shit on this place.”

“Uh huh.” Awsten interjects for a lack of words.

“Ok, yeah you look pretty confused right now, but I don’t blame you.” Gabe notes, spinning in his chair. “Billy boy’s the one who suggested I put my churchy vision here even though he’s real anti-religion. Apparently, calling something a church keeps cops off you and also makes some good ad hype.”

Awsten supposes it’s somewhat of an answer, but of course with everything else Gabe says, it just raises more questions.

“So that’s what’s with the posters? It’s just ad hype for humans and supernaturals?”

Gabe looks up to the ceiling, eyes darting side to side before he answers again. “Yes and no. I wanted to hype this place up with a bus with my face on it, _but_ Bilvy probably saved my ass and told me to go with the mystery poster and website thing for ‘friends only’ or whatever.”

Awsten slants his brows at yet another mention of Bilvy. Everything Gabe seems to do always manages to involve him somehow.

“Bilvy makes a lot of the decisions for you, huh.” Awsten states in what he hopes is a nonchalant way.

“Huh,” Gabe repeats, an unusual thoughtfulness in his voice. “guess he does.”

The door slams open, shaking the wall and the crosses in the room.

“Honey, I’m home!” a new voice slyly announces to them.

The thoughtful trance from Gabe’s face dissolves in an instant as he sees who walked in. “Bilvy!”   

So this was the convincing Bilvy. Awsten didn’t expect the femininity of him (the shoulder length wavy hair, the dainty figure) or the fact he’s dressed like some high class businessman from the 1920’s. With a gloved hand, he’s holding a thick leather briefcase and Awsten can’t help but wonder (and maybe fear) what has to be in there.

Gabe leaps over to him to give him a big squeeze around his thin frame. Bilvy, although looking mildly uncomfortable, reciprocates the hug a little reluctantly (or painfully).

“I told you to call me William in front of clients.” He says to Gabe before looking at Awsten. “I take it you’re the new client.”

“Guess I am. This isn’t gonna kill me or whatever, right?” Awsten half jokes a little nervously.

William lightly pushes Gabe away from him. “Course it’s not. You’re just one of the beta testers of Cobra Clean. It’s this experimental product that’s supposed to numb a little, but then it’s supposed to rejuvenate your um, soul. Don’t worry, it’s been working on most, but I still need more testers for better data.”

“Yeah, I mean that shit worked on me and look at me!” Gabe exclaims as a failed attempt to comfort him.

“Okay, he’s not the best example of people I’ve tested, but it’s gonna be fine, don’t worry.” William flashes a smile for emphasis before covering with his mouth swiftly, but that doesn’t stop Awsten from noticing something important about him.

Fangs.

William has fangs.

Awsten connects the dots in his head and it all makes sense.

Vampires can hypnotize and that’s probably what William was doing to Gabe when he made all his decisions. William probably set up that attack so Sixteen Candles or someone he was targeting could find the poster. William’s Cobra Clean could be the reason why Geoff saw people fainting and the reason why Sixteen Candles had to kill those Betas.

William’s expression darkens into a glare. Awsten gulps. He also forgot vampires can hear thoughts.

“Hold him down.” William commands Gabe. The motion is automatic and almost instantly, Gabe is behind him pinning his wrists down on the desk. His ankles are entrapped by something on the desk’s front and whatever’s there seems to be almost like handcuffs for his legs.

“Aw, but he didn’t do anything.” Gabe whines to William as Awsten angrily tries to wrangle out of his surprisingly strong grip.

“He’s working against us.” William sets his briefcase on an empty spot of the desk and opens it up. To Awsten’s horror, inside is an array of different sized syringes and a bottle filled with an unsettling bright purple liquid.

“I guess you were lying about the rejuvenating part of this.” Awsten snarks.

William chuckles as he inserts the liquid into one of the larger syringes. “Maybe so. I wasn’t kidding about the effects, though. It makes you a clean slate with some heightened senses under my control basically. But look on the bright side, at least you won’t have to go through the pain of transforming tonight I assume, judging by that yellow flash in your eyes when you got mad.”

Eventually, the syringe was filled to the brim and William began aiming its needle towards a vein in Awsten’s left wrist. This was it. The needle inched closer towards towards its spot, Awsten tensing up with eyes pinched.

A slam booms from the doorway and someone acting extremely feral yet is human ravages in with a growl.

Lucky for Awsten, the unexpected yet helpful diversion effectively distracts Gabe and William, who accidentally free him from his chains. He sprints out of the room as whoever pounces at William and brings him to the ground. From there, he runs with surviving as his only thought. It’s a simple notion, left foot, right foot, left foot, left foot, right—until he collides into two other people.

“Fuck,” One of them says, recovering from the impact and sounding strangely Geoff-like. Then he realizes that’s because it _is_ Geoff and Otto with him. “You’re not dead.”

Awsten makes a gesture pointing at himself. “No shit, Sherlock.”

Geoff rolls his eyes at Awsten, who remembers that he may or may not have ticked him off a little. To counter that, he puts on what he hopes is a moderately angry expression. Geoff simply turns away from him and navigates the three of them through the hallways in a hurry.

“I mean, you could’ve, died, I mean. Your connection got weird. Glad you’re here.” Otto smiles fondly at Awsten, who was avoiding his gaze. “Felony ended up escaping the lab and I guess he ended up finding you.”

So that’s what attacked William. He makes a mental note to thank Travis and Jawn for Felony Steve for later. “Good thing he did ‘cuz I got almost got turned into a vampire minion there.”

“Vampire minion?” Otto repeats.

“Yeah, I found Gabe, but it turns out he’s under control over this William guy who—”

Geoff stops in his tracks to look behind him. Awsten and Otto stop and look behind as well, but there’s nothing there except grime. His voice is tense and uneven as he speaks. “William? As in William Beckett?”

“I guess...” Awsten replies, turning back around again. “Does William Beckett dress like it’s 1920?”

Geoff doesn’t respond, but mutters “fuck” over and over to himself before walking quicker. “William’s the fuckin’ _Dandy_ leader and if he’s been brainwashing people in his free time, who knows what he’s planning.”

Yells and clatter are heard from the deeper parts of the halls. Awsten takes that as a cue that they should probably run. The ruckus grows louder and closer with unintelligible, yet threatening shouts.

The three of them seem to have gotten the memo to run for it as they sprint down the halls from what was behind them.

“I called up Sixteen Candles and the pack. They should be around to back us up.” Geoff mentions as a light bulb shatters a little _too_ close to them.

“And then what do we do?” Awsten asks because he’s pretty sure they’re starting to go off plan.

“After that? No idea.” Otto admits a little sheepishly. “I think it’s really just see how much damage Felony’s doing to William and Gabe along with kill any Dandies that are probably lurking.”

They finally reach back to the dancefloor, where it’s as musty and crowded and loud as before. But something’s off. Around them, Awsten can feel beady eyes targeting him and surrounding him. He can smell humans, but they’re fearful and out of sight.

“You think William told any Dandies about us?” Awsten scans the room of whoever’s so set on him. There’s a lot, to his surprise and concern, realizing the distinct vintage and formal style to their attire. “Anyways, Otto, your plan’s starting to look good right now.”

The Dandies creep in on them, inching closer.

“Thanks, but we’re probably gonna have to tweak it.” Otto backs into Awsten and Geoff trying to avoid the Dandies. The hallway behind them quakes as something slams into the wall. To his horror, Awsten sees Felony laying limp in front of the him-sized indentation on the wall.

William and Gabe march into view soon after that, William sauntering over Felony and dusting himself off while Gabe awkwardly steps around the demolition.

“I don’t like fighting that much, if you can’t tell.” William smirks as he thumbs at the hem of his right glove. “But I also don’t like mutts trying to kill me. They’re prepared for battle, just tell me when we start.”

Awsten turns to Geoff and Otto at his sides with a look trying to say “Where’s our backup?”. Geoff shakes his head and frowns before he turns his earpiece on and speaks in one of the channels, staring straight at William.

“Now.”

 

-

 

It all goes down at practically the same second until the Church turns into a complete chaos. He can’t pinpoint it, but Sixteen Candles swoop in through slamming the door open, which lets the pack follow in, Alex and Patty first, all while vamps start pouncing at them and Awsten ends up having his hand around some vamp’s throat.

“You don’t happen to have a stake I can use on you, right?” Awsten asked, knowing damn well what the response was. The vamp instead hisses at him and tries to clock him square in the face.

That’s a little _rude_ , Awsten thinks as he struggles to find something wooden and sharp around him. At the same time, he tries to evade the advances of some other vamps, ducking from a jab at his right and lets the fist hit someone charging at him from behind. Not bad for someone who’s only dealt with vamps once.

But that doesn’t stop him from not noticing the roundhouse kick swooping in from beneath him gets him tumbling to the floor. Eh, he was bound to fuck up at some point.

Some vamps that notice his fall hurl towards him, and Awsten decides that in that moment that a stake or some fucking garlic would be nice to have right now. Frantically, he grabs a barstool leg and gets up to swing the chair at his attackers, spinning in a circle to ensure he hits everyone. He watches as every vamp smacks down for the impact, except one, who turns to dust instead.

“You do realize that _is_ made of wood, right?” Pete says, expertly piercing a makeshift stake along with a carefully crafted one through others trying to attack him.

He throws the stool leg over to Awsten, who copies his moves with it, stabbing the nearest (and most distracted) Dandy and watches as he becomes inexistant. “Now I do.”

Pete rolls his eyes and continues with his business. “Some of your pack’s tryna save the humans and some of the other Dandies are getting dealt with.”

“But what about William and Gabe?” Awsten points out as a particularly nasty Dandy grips onto his shoulders and let out a wide open hiss.

Pete swoops in with a jab to the vamp’s throat and frantically stabs him in the chest until he aims for the heart. He looks back up at Awsten grimly. “I’ll handle them myself.”

Before he leaves though, there’s a low rumble and then, bam. More Dandies burst through the busted doors in hoards, swiftly attacking everyone they see against them.

“Fuck,” Pete’s malice fades as he watches their new attackers. “We can’t take them all at once. We need a better plan. When are you guys gonna fucking turn?”

More Dandies gang up on them as their conversation progresses, the both of them trying to take down as many as they can while talking.

“Nine twenty. But we can’t fully transform if we’re not directly under the moon and you know the cops would get us if we took this outside.” Awsten’s beginning to grow weary from the combat and conversation, his strikes getting more sluggish and sloppy. He guesses one Dandy takes notice as someone charges at him with pure force, flinging him into the air only to crash into the wood of the bar.

He feels dizzy from the impact and tastes blood on his tongue. Great.

As he recovers, the Dandy jumps to the ceiling and starts falling back down in his direction. Even better.

Frantically, he grabs the closest and biggest thing near him (a half empty bottle of vodka) and swings it to the side of the Dandy’s head, shattering the glass and knocking them out.

Awsten takes this as a good moment to regain energy and crawls to the back of the kitchen where the fighting sounds grow muted and his heartbeat pounds louder. He plops on the floor and bumps his head against a stove. His friends, his allies, were getting overpowered out there and they couldn’t find another way to fight the Dandies. Another bottle of alcohol rolls next to the conflicted boy’s knee and he grabs it, knowing it can be used as a weapon later. He wishes they never took up this mission, wishes Geoff shut his mouth, wishes he was in his stupid nightmares—

His stupid nightmares.

Bingo.  

Awsten stood up to turn the dial on the stove and saw tiny flames encircling the stovetop as he wanted before shutting it off. He looks back down at the bottle, knowing what he should do.

He tunes into one of the channels. “Just found a way to defeat the Dandies, but uh, y’all are gonna need to evacuate everyone who’s not a Dandy.”

There’s nothing but static and fighting noises for a while until Geoff picks up. “Really?”

“Really.” Awsten assures him.

“Alright, but what about you?” Otto points out, pausing to engage in further combat. “Can _you_ get out in time?”

“Ummmm,” Awsten actually wasn’t sure of that. “of course.”

“ _Um_? That doesn’t sound good. You’re not doing anything stupid, are you?” Geoff sighs.

“Nope,” he says unevenly.

“Why don’t you just get out with the rest of us?” Otto asks.

“Because,” Awsten states sharply. “I just—have to, okay? It’s gonna take out a lotta the Dandies and we won’t have that many losses for us. Let me do something for once. Go.”  

“Awsten.” They say it a second apart, but both have the same choked up and quiet tone that makes his chest ache.

He feels warm, yet empty hearing them. “Love you guys too.”

Awsten disconnects and turns the stove on full power, watching tongues of fire flick up before he swings the bottle straight down, sprinkling glass bits around him. The fire blazes up, dispersing through wires and their appliances. He takes this as his cue to run.

And so he does, sifting through Dandies that are frozen in shock from watching the sudden blaze and he can finally see it; the narrow opening where the last of the humans with the pack trickle out. He scratches any Dandy that comes in his way and speeds up his pace and God, he’s so close that he—

Awsten’s brought to the ground by a force he can’t recognize and he’s able to swiftly shove it off to the side, but then it catches up to him with an unpleasant surprise cutting through him, burning him, and stopping him completely.

He collapses to his knees with cut up breathing and looks down in terror at the object penetrating his chest. He was just stabbed by one of the fucking crosses, for God’s sake, its neon light still illuminating even as a hidden blade from the bottom invades him and makes him bleed out in a dripping pool. What’s worse is that it feels like his insides are on fucking _fire_ because of it and the flames creeping dangerously nearer don’t make him feel any better.  

“Fuck you.” William says from behind him, creeping an arm up around Awsten’s throat.

“Wow, original.” Awsten chokes out as everyone else around them scatters for the door or get caught in the flames trying. “I can see why you have that cross obsession now, y’know, even though blessed ones can kill you.”

William screws his grip around him tighter. “I could kill _you_ in an instant. If you weren’t a little held up here, you could probably kill me too.” He sounds a little hysteric now, and he looks like it too with rips and blood on his clothes. It’s almost like all the classiness just fell off him like broken armor. “I wanna make you suffer like I had to tonight.”

“Why don’t you just drop dead?” Awsten snaps with a strain to his voice. But at that point, it’s already too late.

William pulls out another cross knife from his coat pocket and stabs him in the chest once again, opposite to the first wound. Awsten heaves out some blood that can’t stand being inside him because of how fucking _shitty_ it feels. Everything around him is burning, his insides are burning, and the blood loss is making him want to take a nap he knows won’t end well. He falls to the floor, bleeding out to an enemy he just met and the flames are excitedly greeting him. He never even got to live that long as a werewolf, he thinks regrettably.

William looms over him, pleased and holding his weapon to his side. Awsten’s eyes droop shut and his breathing slows. Everywhere is warm around him. It feels like he’s not sleeping alone. It’s nice, Geoff and Otto are nice, they’re dumb, but they’re nice. They’re warm and pretty, Awsten thinks as the temperatures spike up around him, they make him feel warm and pretty.

“Awsten,” Geoff’s voice crackles into his earpiece. He kind of sounds like he’s been crying. “are you still there?”

“Of course, duhhhhhhh.” Awsten croaks out happily. “I luh you guys. Looooooooooooooove.”

Everything goes black after that and Awsten feels nice in that blanket of heat surrounding him.

 

-

 

Everything is quiet around him, which is strange because Awsten can always hear the sizzling from the kitchen when Geoff makes breakfast. Maybe today, Geoff had to go to one of the pack meetings and Otto’s the only other person in the apartment. Yeah, that sounds about right, except when Awsten remembers that Otto usually wakes up earlier than him and starts blaring his middle school playlist to wake him up. Something’s off.

His sheets don’t even feel the same. These feel like a giant piece of paper laying over him when he knows he bought that bigass fluffy blanket a week ago. Then it all just clicks.

Awsten opens his eyes to find himself in room completely doused in white and him on a matching bed with a heart monitor accelerating from the left side of his bed and an I.V. drip pricked into his arm. There’s some other medical shit around the bed, but he doesn’t know what they are and he doesn’t care because he doesn’t even know where or why the fuck he’s here. Right now his only options are Clandestine and a hospital, but still.

A woman walks through the door in the corner of the room with a cart stocked with more medical shit he doesn’t care about. She’s just about to replace one of the bottles with a refill until she stops to see Awsten, eyes wide. What is it? Is he like, deformed now or something? She says something quietly to herself and scurries off.

A couple minutes later, Jawn bursts through the door and stares at him, jaw dropped and frozen into place. Huh, so he _is_ in Clandestine.

“Oh fuck, you’re actually awake.” he breathes out after a bit of time. “I’ll get them, don’t worry, I’ll just—”

“Don’t leave me here, dickwad.” Awsten pouts. “I don’t even know what’s going on right now.”

“I’ll explain later!” Jawn promises before running off. Great.

Later comes about five minutes after their brief conversation, and Jawn has Geoff, Otto, and Travis at his bedside.

Geoff gives him a giant squeeze so tight that Awsten feels like it’s going to break his bones. He can also feel him wipe some tears into his shoulder. “We thought you died in there.”

The hug makes Awsten recall some of what happened because ow, the wounds on his chest seem to remember a lot. Geoff releases his hold after that, still smearing tears off with his hand.

“Well lucky for you, I’m not, but anyways, what happened after I, y’know, got stabbed?”

“Um, we managed to get out the humans that didn’t get turned,” Otto says before frowning. “but some of them got turned into Dandies and they either got out like that or they died in the fire.”

Awsten gulps and nods. He probably should’ve expected the casualties to happen, especially for something as spontaneous as that, and his stomach sinks as he thinks about it.

Travis seems to notice the little dark cloud looming over him and says something quickly. “The casualties would’ve happened either way. You lessened the risk of more happening.”

“Okay.” That’s really all he can say about that. He’s not really sure if that’s true, but he’s sure none of them want to know. “Okay, but what about the Dandies and William?”

“William got away.” Jawn scowls as the words form. “The Dandies either died or escaped along with that Gabe guy, but at least you escaped. Apparently, Felony saved you from him because he was able to transform and he set up an illusion to distract him. Sixteen Candles gave us plenty of tech to help him be less chaotic so at least that’s good.”

“Yeah,” Geoff absently pets his shoulder as he speaks, sniffling occasionally.  “he carried you out on his back and brought you here before—” He gulps. “y’know.”

“I...know.” He really could’ve died out there. They all could’ve. “But hey, we’re all here. I’m alive, y’all are alive, Pete ‘n his gang are alive. That’s...good, relatively, I guess, considering the circumstances.”

They all silently stand around with no other word to lift up the heavy atmosphere so Awsten takes that upon himself to move on. “So do I have to take this I.V. out myself to leave or…?”

That lightens the mood a little; they all exchange their share of smiles and small laughs for the day and Awsten feel accomplished.

“You’ll get that thing off you soon. We were gonna keep you here for a while because we thought you were gonna go into a coma, but we’ll try to check you out of here, kay?” Jawn assures him. He nudges Travis and himself towards the door, but raises an eyebrow at Geoff, who responds with a muted “We’ll stay here a little longer.” and lets them go off to find the nurses.

“So,” Otto starts, putting his face at the same level as his. “you’re dumb.”

Awsten snorts. “Maybe so.”

“Really. It was a good idea on the spot. I mean, I guess it took out that brainwashing thing you were talkin’ about and some Dandies. But where’d the fire idea come from anyways?”

“A dream.” Awsten takes in a breath and decides if he wants to confess the rest to them. His lips move faster than his thoughts though. “You guys were in it. There was fire ‘n shit, obviously and you guys transformed. Come to think of it, I was attacked in that one too.”

There’s this silence for a while and Geoff looks like he’s about to say something, but it’s gratefully disturbed by Jawn and Travis bringing in the nurses. Geoff and Otto leave glumly, hand-in-hand and Awsten’s just left with nurses asking how he feels before performing their tests and giving him medication.

“Not that good.” he answers, but it's more directed at himself than anything. 

 

-

 

“Ow, motherfucker.” Awsten complains as he collapses on their couch face down. Thank god he’s finally here, he hasn’t been home for _days_ and the furniture at Clandestine wasn’t exactly the comfiest. It was nighttime now, the nurses had to run a _ton_ of tests on him and make sure there wasn’t any internal bleeding, silver infecting him, and other stuff that could kill him. Luckily, he made it out relatively fine, minus the fucking scars on his chest.  

“You okay, Aws?” Geoff asks, his nurturing instincts already kicking in.

“M’fine.” he replies, voice muffled by the couch cushions.

Geoff sits on the cushion where Awsten’s feet are stretched out and does that one-handed shoulder massage thing that calms him down every time and he just melts into it as always.

“You shouldn’t be sleeping on the couch for a while, you always fall off it.” Geoff says softly. A pair of keys clatter somewhere in the kitchen and another set of weight is added on the cushion. Otto and Geoff murmur to each other for a minute before they share a short kiss and one of them walks off.

Awsten’s maybe one second from falling asleep before Geoff’s voice chimes in, reeling his hand back from his shoulder.

“Sorry for being a little cold to you at the Church. You were being hard to deal with, but you’re still new to all this and it’s just natural and I’m sorry. I don't blame you for being you, but you can't blame me for hating it, y'know.” Geoff apologizes.

Awsten flips his body around so that he’s facing Geoff, who’s staring intently at the ground. He frowns. Geoff really does feel bad, especially since he’s so sensitive. “It’s fine. I was being a little bitch and  _I_ wouldn’t really wanna work with myself like that. I guess I was just stressed from everything.”

Geoff nods slowly and thinks for a while before he turns to look Awsten in the eye, his eyes wider than usual and his mouth hanging slightly ajar.

“Awsten, you—you love us, right?”

It takes him aback a little, but he answers quickly. “Of course.”

He can hear the sound of a word beginning to form from Geoff, but it’s muted until he blurts it out.

“How?”

Awsten freezes. He doesn’t know what he specifically means by that, but at the same time he does and he doesn’t have an answer for him.

“That was a bad question, sorry. You’re still recovering, you’re tired, I know. Just—” Geoff drags his palm down his mouth like it can erase what he said. “you’re welcome to sleep in me and Otto’s bed if you want. I know you always whine that it’s better than yours, so here’s your pass for tonight.”

Sleeping in a bed with both of the men he’s pretty much in love with? Why not?

“Thanks.” Awsten says as a coy smile winds up on his face.

Later that night, Awsten sleeps with Geoff and Otto flanked on each side of the bed and feels Geoff kiss him on the forehead when he thinks Awsten’s asleep and Otto’s stomach, which his head conveniently uses as a pillow.

Awsten doesn’t dream that night.

 

-

 

Awsten wakes up again and there’s no sizzling and no overly autotuned music blaring in his ear. He swears to god, if he opens his eyes and he’s back at Clandestine he’s gonna—

He’s not in Clandestine. He’s in Geoff and Otto’s bed, but it’s vacant of them.

Oh.

Awsten can hear them talking from the living room though, but their voices are so low, that he can really only distinguish who’s talking at a time. It’s their business so he’ll leave them alone for now. When there’s no more murmurs, he takes it as his cue to walk in.

He gets there and Otto and Geoff are still deep in their conversation at the kitchen, foreheads touching and Otto’s hands hanging on to Geoff’s shoulders. It’s too intimate for Awsten to intrude so then and there he decidedly turns on his heel and walks back to his room.

“Oh, wait Awsten!” Otto calls after him, speeding to the hallway entrance.

“What?” He turns around, not sure of what he’s expecting.

The two of them nudge each other for a while, trying to get one of them to talk until Geoff finally gives in and says something.

“Fine,” he says to Otto before turning back to Awsten, head tilted down but eyes still on him. “We realized something.”

“You realized that one of you is pregnant?” Awsten jokes with a fake smirk, internally fearing what he’s going to say next.

“No, no.” Geoff looks at Otto, who nods at him. “Remember that whole ‘How?’ question I asked you last night?”

“Yeah, so?”

“Can you answer it?”

“What is this, a pop quiz?” Awsten snarks before softening his tone and letting some of his guard down. “And no, I don’t know.”

“Alright, well, we found the answer for ourselves.” Another pause and then a bit of hollow laughter from Geoff. “God, this is really stupid isn’t—”

“Both of us love you in that more than a friend way and we don’t know what to do with that.” Otto spews out, suddenly interested in the floor panels.

Awsten shuts down processing that. His jaw hangs limply and his eyebrows scrunch together trying to think.

“Wha...?” They—he just—What?

“It’s weird. It was really weird.” Awsten hears Geoff say, but to him, he sounds like he’s in another room than the mere feet away is really is. “We kinda realized after you told us you were setting the Church on fire, heh.”

Awsten thinks he’s just about to come down from his confusion when he realizes the other implications of them actually admitted _that_.

“Is this your way of asking me out?” Awsten asks, semi faking a confident smile.

“I mean, yeah, kinda.” Otto admits.

So it is. A new beginning.

“So y’all won’t mind if I just…” Awsten trails off to run up to the both of them, latching his lips towards each of theirs, a sly flick of his tongue as an addition, and releasing after a couple of seconds.

“Yeah, I guess you could say that.” Otto says, fazed from that surprise.

“Good.” Awsten beams. “Now I’m a lil hungry and Geoff, since you’re our kitchen bitch—”

“Fuck you.” Geoff replies, but the upwards curve of his lips says otherwise. He starts heading towards the kitchen to get out the pots, pans, and ingredients, and they all continue on as they would with any normal day.

It feels normal, Awsten thinks, like they’ve just been in this giant domestic relationship the entire time. Maybe they really just were and they never noticed it.

He knows they’re not going to live this happily all the time; the Dandies are still out there with William, vampire gangs still run amok, and everyone’s just stuck living in the same hell with different levels of advantages.

Right now, Awsten will do anything to protect themselves to keep moments like these and right now, he thinks that he’ll go on just for them.

**Author's Note:**

> like, subscribe, and comment lmao


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